When Benji found out where Mariposa's secret lair is he feels many things, the first one being pity. Sydney's big powerful villain's lair is the home of her dead father, a place from which the world forcefully removed her from. Cole had only been renting, so after his death, Andy couldn't even visit the house, she was forced to remove her stuff while the rest went into her Tía Camila's care, Andy never told Benji what her aunt did with her father's belongings. "Andrea?" He questioned as he walked into the abandoned home. Benji looked at the empty bedrooms and hallways, what had once felt too small to be a home for a child and father, feels too large to fill. He smiled sadly at the memories he and Andy shared in the home. "Andy?" He asked once more, Benji knew exactly where Andy was hiding but he hoped he didn't need to go in there.

The boy's hopes were short-lived as he approached the front of the room, Benji felt the hair on his arm rise as he reached for the door handle. "Andy?"

Andy was sitting on the windowsill which had once been a place to remember her mother, a shrine of photos and candles smelling Isabella's favourite scents. Benji never got to meet Isabella, she died just before Cole and Andy moved to the City. "I keep failing. My dad's plan is smart, it should be working but it isn't! He would be so disappointed in me."

Benji frowned as he saw Andy, her hair was messy and her eyes are practically closing by themself, her glasses are off and resting on the windowsill next to her. "Maybe if you let me see your father's plan..."

"I can't risk that," she said, refusing to meet Benji's eyes, she already knew that her best friend's opinion of her father had changed since he found out about his intentions.

"Andrea, you should rest, you just akumatised two people in less than eight hours, you must be exhausted," he took another step closer and placed his hand in front of her, "Come on."

"No, I can't," she pulled her hand away from his. "I'm weak and tired but that means the heroes are too," she looked at him, checking to see if he was tired as well. "I need to akumatised another person."

"No way! You'll hurt yourself if you do that."

Andy smiled as she looked at Benji, the boy felt butterflies flutter in his stomach as he looked at her warm grin. "I love that you care so much Benj but I need to do this, I can't just keep failing! I need to get their miraculous!"

Benji watched as she grabbed her miraculous out of her pocket and put it on, "Please, Andy. You're going to hurt yourself."

Andy looked away from Benji before saying her transformation words, Benji was forced to shield his eyes from the bright light, and when he looked back at his crush she was unrecognisable. She stood up straight but looked as if she could fall at any given moment.

Benji bit his lip, "I can't stop you from doing this can I?"

"This will be my last one if I fail-" Mariposa's fist balled at the idea, "I'll take a week off, I promise."

Benji held out his hand, "Shake on it, after this, I have you for the whole week. We can hang out at the skate park and work on a new cover, no more akumas."

"Promise." Mariposa shook Benji's hand, a blush appearing on her face.

"Okay." Benji softly grabbed a butterfly, "Akumatise me."

"What?!" Mariposa gasped, "I can't-"

"I won't fight you. If you akumatise anybody else they will fight you and you will get hurt, trust me, this is the safest way."

"Benj..."

Benji placed it in Mariposa's hands, "I'm all in, rule number two; no one gets hurt, that includes you."

"What about rule number nine? You didn't want me to akumatise you."

He shrugged, "Rules change."

Mariposa wrapped her arms around Benji, "You're the best friend a girl could ever have."

Benji frowned, knowing that while he was being a good friend to Andy, he was betraying his teammates.

Mariposa turned the butterfly into an akuma and set it free, the Akuma flying into Benji's miraculous. "Maléfique, you're disappointed that you can't help your best friend, you will get me Ladybeetle and Night Noir's miraculous, and in return, I will help you will your problem."

"Yes, Mariposa."

It turns out being an Akuma isn't too different from being a superhero, they both involve a tight suit, jumping from high buildings and a dumb object as a super tool. His suit was different, instead of being a mix of pink and grey, it was dark grey. Maléfique's hair is gelled back and his brown eyes are blue. His powers are different, instead of multiplying, he can multiply others into clones of himself. "Get the heroes' attention," he tells each person he turns into a copy of himself.

'Andrea, you okay?' He thought, knowing that Mariposa can read his thoughts.

'Yeah, just a little tired.'

'Don't overwork yourself.'

Mariposa didn't reply but he had to trust her.

"Are you kidding?!" He heard a voice exclaim from behind him, renard. Maléfique identified the voice as his annoying teammate. "I am not in the mood to fight another akuma! Three akumas in eight hours! Get a life Mariposa!"

Maléfique couldn't help but giggle, 'Benji!' She gasped, Maléfique broke into laughter at the fake betrayal in her voice.

Maléfique turned to face the superhero, Renard was glaring at him, maybe laughing wasn't the best idea. Next to Renard was Tartaruga, Night Noir, Honeybee and Peafowl, Maléfique was impressed by the quick arrive, the only person missing is Ladybeetle. "Where is your leader?" Maléfique asked, he tried to make himself sound as menacing as possible.

"We don't have a leader," Honeybee said with a grin, Maléfique tried not to think about his pride for the group, usually that question spark up a debate in the group.

Maléfique bit his lip, "Ha! Sure there is a leader, Ladybeetle has the ladybug miraculous. The ladybug and the black cat are the only important miraculouses, the rest of you are useless numbers."

Night tightened his grip around his baton at the mention of his miraculous, "They are important!"

"Sure they are," Maléfique faked a pout. Tartaruga looked as if she was going to bite his face off, Maléfique smiled brightly at the fact, payback.

"What even are you?" Tartaruga asked as she looked his costume up and down, "That must be the most boring design I've ever seen."

"Says the turtle."

"My miraculous is a very cool miraculous!"

"Whatever you say Michelangelo."

"You little bitc-"

Ladybeetle showed up looking like hell, his hair is messy and even though they are wearing masks, Maléfique can tell that the boy has bags underneath his eyes.

"Ladybeetle, I am blah-blah-blah, give me your and Night Noir's miraculous blah-blah-blah, let's get this over and done with. Lucky charm!"

The heroes stared at Ladybeetle, confused and shocked at the lack of planning and patience. Maléfique was shocked too but he realised something, Ladybeetle looked just as, if not more tired than Andy was, she was right. "A spoon?"

"Aw," Peafowl cooed at the baby sized spoon that was Ladybeetle's lucky charm.

Suddenly Mariposa started coughing uncontrollably. He gasped, 'andy! are you okay?'

No response, she just kept coughing and he felt his connection with her weakening. "Where is Souris?" He heard Honeybee asked though he didn't care about the heroes anyone.

I got to get out of here, he thought. Mariposa is weak, she could detransform at any moment, detransforming him with her. He looked around, Andy's old house isn't too far away from here, if he just ducked into an alleyway he might be able to detransform back without any of the heroes seeing him.

"It's been fun," Maléfique ran away from the scene, it took the heroes a second to understand what had just happened and when they caught up, they got lost with all of the clones of himself that he had made.

"Where is he?" Night asked.

"I- I don't know."

"Ah- guys!?" Honeybee pointed at the random clones of Maléfique who where turning back.

Renard shook his head, "They're turning back? How- The akuma must had detransformed!"

"Why?" Ladybeetle questioned as he looked at the lucky charm in his hand, "That makes no sense, an akuma had never just disappeared like that."

"I don't think that's the last we're going to see of that akuma."

Peafowl frowned, "We didn't even get their name."

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Sorry that the ending is so rushed! I hope you liked this chapter, this is the last of the akumas for a while I promise 🤚😭

Like, comment and tell me what you thought!

1490 words